An attempt is made to share the truth regarding issues concerning Israel and her right to exist as a Jewish nation. This blog has expanded to present information about radical Islam and its potential impact upon Israel and the West. Yes, I do mix in a bit of opinion from time to time.

Sunday, June 22, 2014

Good vs Evil: Israeli Intel Exec Pioneers Hi-Tech With Palestinians. His Nephew, A U.S. Citizen, Is Abducted By Terrorists

Until two days ago, I hadn’t spoken with Yishai Fraenkel since last August. I had just published a Forbes magazine cover story
about Israeli-Palestinian joint ventures in high-tech (as well as
efforts to bring Israeli Arabs and ultra-orthodox Jews into the sector),
and had interviewed Yishai for it. As the general manager of the design
and development center at Intel’s headquarters in Jerusalem, the
44-year-old is spearheading those integration efforts for the company.

He gave me a tour, and made others available to speak about the
initiatives. Almost instantly, I was struck by his grace, warmth and
brilliance. That Intel— the world’s #1 chipmaker—is the key player
(along with Cisco Systems-Israel) in these programs is monumental. The
company is Israel’s largest private employer (9,855), as well as the
country’s largest-single industrial exporter ($3.8 billion; a 10% market
share). Intel has invested about $10 billion in Israel over the past
few decades, and in April announced it would spend up to $6 billion for
an upgrade of a chip-making facility in the country’s south.

But that conversation last August was a painful one for me. Many Palestinian entrepreneurs hated
my cover because it crossed the border from development of their
high-tech sector into politics—specifically the prospect that such
Israeli-Palestinian partnerships could be the best hope for paving the
road to peace. Yishai was comforting, and tried to explain why they were
upset. “Please continue to cover our region,” he wrote. “As you stated,
the rays of sun, even if painful, only do good.” I’ve done so, and only
last month moderated a panel in Tel Aviv on Israeli-Palestinian
ventures for Israel’s largest high-tech trade association. (I didn’t
have a chance to see Yishai this time around, although he was initially
going to be a panelist.)

Thursday’s talk, by phone, was beyond painful—it was unimaginable. I
had just learned that his 16-year-old nephew Naftali—a duel
Israeli-American citizen—was one of the three Israeli boys kidnapped a
week before. The other youths are named Gilad Shaar, also 16, and Eyal
Yifrah, age 19. None of them are soldiers, and they were all on their
way home from school when they vanished. According to Israeli police,
one of the boys had called a police hotline phone to whisper, “We’ve
been kidnapped.”

YOU DON’T TAKE KIDS: A recent photo of
Naftali Fraenkel, top-center, surrounded by friends. (Photos: courtesy
of the Fraenkel family)

.
To say that the abductions have captured and broken the hearts of the
nation is to downplay what’s happening in this strip of land roughly
the size of New Jersey. Israelis speak and think of little else. Their
24/7 news coverage is reminiscent of America during the 1970s Iran
hostage crisis. “We are ALL now like one big family waiting for a loved
one (3) to be well and safe,” writes a dear friend of mine, Ayelet
Steinfeld, an education consultant for schools in Israel’s north—and a
mother of three.
The largest manhunt perhaps in Israel’s history is underway. Israeli
troops have poured into the West Bank, where house-to-house and
cave-to-cave searches are happening. Some gun battles have erupted,
rockets have been fired into Israel from Gaza, and Israel has retaliated
with airstrikes against Islamist training facilities. More than 330
Palestinians, most of them Hamas members, have been rounded up in the
West Bank for interrogations. Some of those arrested had been released
by Israel in 2011 as part of a 1,027-for-1 exchange deal to free a kidnapped IDF soldier named Gilad Shalit (sometimes spelled Schalit) from a five-year captivity by Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
There’s no telling how volcanic the situation on the ground could
become if the kids aren’t found by the start of Ramadan next
Saturday—the timing of which the abductors may have considered as part
of their plan.

JUST BONDING: Naftali’s uncle, Intel senior
executive Yishai Fraenkel, displays a chart of the Intel-inspired Joint
Technology Forum, a collection of Israeli, Palestinian and American
high-tech firms that are starting “to talk, to just bond.” (Photo by
Richard Behar in Jerusalem, 2013)

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The boys apparently disappeared at a hitchhiking junction in the West
Bank on their way home from a religious school they attend in Gush
Etzion, a cluster of 18 Israeli communities founded in 1940. [See map
below.] Given its historical and geographical importance to Israel, it
is widely accepted that in the event of a peace agreement, Israel would
keep Gush Etzion—despite its location inside the “Green Line” (the 1949
armistice line between Israel and the West Bank). The land was purchased
by settlers in the 1920s and 30s, but the towns destroyed by the Arab
Legion before the outbreak of Israel’s 1948 war of independence. The
communities were rebuilt after the 1967 Six Day War.
Gilad, one of the seized teenagers, lives in Talmon—a West Bank
settlement (pop: 3,200) founded in 1989. The second teen, Eyal, lives in
El’ad, a fast-growing city of 36,000 barely 16 miles from Tel Aviv. As
for Naftali, he lives with his family and relatives in Nof Ayalon, a
small religious town of about 5,000 people located some 25 miles from
Tel Aviv (and 20 miles from Jerusalem). Naftali’s grandparents moved to
Israel from Brooklyn in 1956. While he was born and raised in Israel,
he’s visited close relatives in America, and he enjoys duel U.S.-Israel
citizenship. He is said to be a bright student, who loves basketball and
other sports, as well as a gifted musician who plays the flute and
guitar. And it’s now nine days since his family has seen or heard from him.

FOLLOW THE BLUE CIRCLES, CLOCKWISE: City of
E’lad (home of Eyal); Talmon settlement (home of Gilad); Gush Etzion,
south of Jerusalem (location of the school); town of Nof Ayalon, near
Modi’in (home of Naftali). The dotted line is the 1949 armistice line—or
“Green Line.”

.Q: Last we spoke, Yishai, it was about such a positive
topic—your work to realize your dream of the integration of Palestinians
into high-tech, including joint ventures with Israeli firms. And now
you’re in a nightmare.

A: These are trying times for us. While we have moments of
despair, we are trying hard to keep our optimism. Naftali is the son of
my brother and sister-in-law. Not only is he my nephew, but we also live
in the same neighborhood. He’s almost like a son. I see him very often.
It’s very hard, ok? This is now a week. There’s a lot of suspense, a
lot of tension. I don’t know his whereabouts, and I’m just gravely
worried. On the one hand, the family is very uptight. On the switch
side, very optimistic.Q: Are you able to sleep?A: With the help of sleeping pills, yes, unfortunately. It’s very hard.[Interview continues throughout this article)
.
Israel prime minister Benjamin (Bibi) Netanyahu says “it’s absolutely
certain” that Hamas is behind the kidnappings, and makes it clear that
his military’s mission— dubbed Operation Brother’s Keeper—has two goals:
To bring back the boys, and to deal a thundering blow to Hamas. It was
only 12 days ago that the West Bank’s Palestinian Authority and Gaza’s
Hamas sealed a reconciliation government. Since then, Hamas' leaders
have felt comfortable raising their heads and profiles in the Bank. The
group’s charter—it’s designated a terrorist organization by the U.S.,
EU, Canada, Japan, Jordan and (recently) Egypt—is clear about its
objective of destroying Israel, as well as killing all the world’s Jews.
[For a view of a Hamas summer camp for boys, see this Reuters slideshow of photos taken only two days ago.]

President Barack Obama has called the unity deal an “unhelpful step”
towards peace, but would nonetheless work with and fund the new
Palestinian government. In response, a bipartisan group of 88 senators
sent the White House a message that they would consider halting
financial aid to the Palestinians. (Perhaps needless to say, by law the
U.S. may not benefit Hamas, just as it cannot benefit Al-Qaeda.)
In the midst of Operation Brother’s Keeper, a State Department
spokesperson urges both sides to “exercise restraint and avoid the types
of situations that could destabilize the situation”—politicalspeak that
means bupkis unless the words restraint and destabilization are
defined.
“The abductors from Hamas came from an area under Palestinian
Authority control and returned to PA-controlled territory,” Netanyahu
said. “It’s important to understand the consequences of the unity with
Hamas—it’s bad for Israel, bad for the Palestinians, and bad for the
area. “This incident reveals the character of the terror that we are
fighting. Terrorists abduct innocent Israeli children while we give
medical care in our hospitals to sick Palestinian children. That is the
difference between our humane policy and the murderous terror that is
attacking us.” (In fact, the wife of PA president Mahmoud Abbas
underwent surgery last weekend in a Tel Aviv hospital, while the
mother-in-law of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was allowed into the
country two weeks ago for cancer treatment.)
Netanyahu’s disgust is shared by Israel’s Consul General in New York.
“Morally inexcusable and unacceptable,” Ambassador Ido Aharoni told me
yesterday. “The boys were on their way home from school. Targeting
teenagers is a clear indication of Hamas’ inhumanity. It is our
obligation as human beings not to look the other way and keep silent,
when evil transpires before our very eyes. Right now, all of our efforts
are focused on the swift rescue of our boys, and their return home.”

A GIFT FOR MUSIC: Naftali Fraenkel, right, with guitar.

.
While U.S. lawmakers from across the aisle have condemned the
kidnappings, Obama has thus far remained silent. “The leaders of the
world must make their voices heard loud and clear,” Israel president
Shimon Peres told the parents of the abducted kids at a meeting in his
home on Thursday. He promised to raise the subject with Obama during a
visit next week to Washington. “I intend to echo the cries of our
country against terrorism both in private and in public. This is my
personal mission… there is no room for forgiveness or mercy.”
Hamas hasn’t claimed responsibility. Nor has it hasn’t issued a
denial, and its leaders appear to be applauding the abductions. “We call
upon our people in all parts of the West Bank to confront the
occupation, whether as part of mass confrontations or
privately-initiated resistance [read: operations],” wrote Hamas
spokesman Hussam Badran on his Facebook page,
according to MEMRI, a Middle East press-monitoring organization
headquartered in Washington. “This is an opportunity to widen the circle
of confrontation, and restore the West Bank to its natural status as
the spearhead of the resistance.”
A second Hamas spokesman warns that if Israel expels West Bank Hamas leaders to Gaza, it would be “opening the gates of hell.”
Meanwhile, Naftali’s parents, siblings, cousins, aunts and uncles in
Israel and New York (Brooklyn and upstate) exist inside their own hell —
waiting for word about the schoolboy’s fate. As does Intel, and
Yishai’s Palestinian friends and colleagues. A group of American
diplomats visited the Fraenkel family, as did Netanyahu yesterday.
Neighbors have been told not to talk to the press, as the hunt
continues. Q: Yishai, what can you tell Forbes about the status of the investigation?A: We do know some things that go beyond what is public. I
cannot disclose it of course. I will say that based upon the data that I
see, I have strong feelings that these kids are alive. We have not seen
concrete signs of life, but all the data that we do have leads us to
believe that these three boys are alive. The Israeli security forces are
investing tremendous efforts here. They’re doing all they can. Our
prime minister, Netanyahu, our president, Peres, it’s their top agenda
right now—to get these three abducted teens. Next to our houses there’s a
small contingent of people keeping us updated.Q: Israel believes Hamas operatives conducted the kidnappings. Is that the case?

A.
This is what our government claims, and I trust they have their
sources. And [U.S.] Secretary of State John Kerry said there are many
indications that point to Hamas involvement. But I don’t know who did it
or why they did it. I simply do not know. Q: Is this especially painful for you because of all the work you do for and with Palestinians at Intel?
A: No, no, the answer is no. I’m a realist. I’ve lived in this place
all my life and there are many forces trying to shape our
region—positive and negative or destructive forces. And there’s no doubt
that people who kidnap young kids are destructive and they hurt the
Palestinian cause as equally as it’s hurting the Israeli cause. It
doesn’t help anyone. Negative, negative, negative—any way you look at
it. So, am I surprised? No, I’m saddened. But that’s reality. Does that
mean I feel bad things about the good people I work with, among the
Palestinians? No. These are good people. It’s no secret that every
society has bad people. Do we not have Israeli or Jewish murders and
rapists? Are they not equally bad?

.
Indeed, the Palestinians who Yishai works with in high-tech – I had
the unforgettable pleasure of meeting some of them — are among the cream
of the leaders that their people need in any future state. It’s a shame
they are not also in politics, where they are also desperately needed,
but entirely understandable that they shun it.
A year ago, Intel established what it calls the Joint Technology
Forum. [See photo above of Yishai holding a JTF chart.] Its first
‘meet-up’ brought 30 Palestinian and 30 Israeli entrepreneurs—an equal
number intentionally—to Intel’s Jerusalem HQ from 20 companies. Among
them: NDS (a large Israeli video-software firm), Asal Technologies and
Exalt Technologies (two of the largest and best Palestinian high-tech
companies); the Israel branches of Microsoft, Cisco, IBM and other
multinationals. Purpose: “To talk, to just bond,” said Yishai. “We
decided, let’s take the gospel and spread it out.” Intel’s offices in
Israel display hope for what a Middle East future could look like. At
“coffee corners” on some floors, Israeli and Palestinian men look
interchangeable, and they mix amicably with Christians and Druse,
burka-clad Arab women and wig-donning ultra-orthodox Jewish women.
Last summer, Yishai asked Ghassan Al-Jamal, an official at the U.S.
embassy in Tel Aviv who leads the USAID technology efforts for
Palestinians, where he thought that Intel-Israel ranks among Israeli
companies outsourcing work to Ramallah (the business capital of the West
Bank.) “With regards to your question, you rank as number ONE,”
Al-Jamal wrote back.

HE HAS A DREAM: Yishai Fraenkel at Intel in
Jerusalem in 2013, discussing Palestinian joint ventures for Forbes
magazine. (Photo: Behar)

Intel’s work with Palestinians is not about charity. “It makes
economic sense,” Yishai told me during that visit. “Because they’re
innovative, because they’re good. Intel does corporate responsibility,
but we’re not in the philanthropy business. Intel is in to make money.
One [West Bank] company we’re working with could possibly one day become
an Intel branch.” He elaborated on these points: “Israeli engineers are
not very cheap. Almost every project we do nowadays, we try to find
strategies of lowering costs, of outsourcing some parts of these
programs in lower-cost geographies. It starts with outsourcing to
Palestinian companies, and then flourishing into a much deeper
cooperation—of developing together, of them becoming part of the Intel
ecosystem of development.”
One of Yishai’s deputies, an Israeli named Joey Edelstein, had told
me that “by far” his outsourcing ventures with Palestinian firms were
unrivaled: “I have done outsourcing to India, I’ve seen China. This
works for us and is the best experience that I’ve seen.”
However, there’s a downside: “It goes pretty slow for a number of
reasons,” Yishai had conceded. “I think we have some suspicions to
overcome. The tech sector in Palestine is still fairly small, taking
time for things to come up. I think the Israeli companies are not as
aware. There are concerns about, ‘What happens if tomorrow morning a
third intifada, a third uprising, starts? How will relationships be?’ So there are concerns, some of which are legitimate.” Q: Will you continue your work with Palestinians,
regardless of what has happened to your nephew? Or will the initiative
be affected in any way?A: Of course I’ll continue, because I think this is the right
thing. Number one, I’m a business person, I’m a technologist. It makes
business sense. It makes technology sense. And beyond that I think it
makes national sense, for Palestinians, for Israelis. Every way I look
at, it’s the right thing. And as you and I know very well, it’s not
simple; it’s complicated, it’s touchy, it’s sensitive. But it’s the
right thing to do. Q: Yeah, I learned the hard
way about the sensitivities. I learned that I should try harder to
separate the growth of the Palestinian high-tech sector from the
prospect that such collaborations could help lead to normalization and
peace. The sector needs to grow in its own right.A: You meant well, but through all these landmines you never
know when you’re gonna step on one in this region. I have no doubt that
the [Forbes] piece bode well, meant well. Yes, some people may have been
offended, but I think they were worried. They were worried how will
this portray them, what will society think about them, “what does it
imply, what does it say? Just do it in hush-hush or just do it?” It’s just the way it is.Q: Has Intel been supportive through this family crisis?A: Intel has been extremely supportive. The level of support
has been outstanding. I’ve gotten calls from people throughout the
company, across the globe. I’ve also received in the past couple of days
numerous emails and phone calls from Palestinian friends and
counterparts of mine who work with Intel, of course all private, but
condemning this and telling me in their daily prayers they think about
these three kids. It was really touching. They meant it, they really
meant it from their hearts.Q: But the messages are private. They’re not willing to step forward publicly and condemn it. Is that part of the problem here?A: Maybe. Every society has its dynamics, and I can’t say I
understand the Palestinian dynamic. I can anticipate it. I don’t hold a
grudge against them. They have their issues and the way it works. In my
eyes, when President Abbas said what he did on Wednesday, it meant a
lot. [See excerpts below of the speech.] We’ve heard
him in the past. This time he stood on a stage in Saudi Arabia. He’s the
leader, the representative and spokesperson of the Palestinian people,
and for me this was a very vocal, strong public statement. When he
spoke, he was the mouth for my Palestinian friends, that was my feeling.
He spoke for them. Hearing it from him was as if I was hearing it from
my Palestinian friends.

.
EXCERPTS FROM SPEECH BY ABBAS IN SAUDI ARABIA: “We are [working]
in coordination with [Israeli security forces] in order to find these
boys because they are, first and foremost, human beings, and we want to
protect human lives. Even the Americans have told us that one of them is
an American [Naftali Fraenkel], and we answered that, whether American
or Israeli, for us he is a human being and we must look for this human
being and return him to his family…The truth is that whoever committed
this act wants to destroy us. Therefore, we will talk to them
differently and hold a different position, whoever it was that committed
this action. Because we cannot endure such actions; we cannot confront
the State of Israel—neither militarily nor in any other way.”

.
Yishai’s acceptance of the reluctance of Palestinians to voice their
outrage is admirable, especially given what can happen to those who do.
While some Palestinian entrepreneurs featured in my Forbes story liked the article, others were angered or frightened that they could be personally or financially targeted.
Take the recent case of professor Mohammed Dajani, the director of
the American Studies department at Al Quds University, a Palestinian
college that enjoys a sister-institution status with Brandeis University
in Massachusetts, where half the undergraduate students are Jewish. In
March, he took his students on a visit to the Auschwitz-Birkenau
concentration camp in Poland. (He did this, he says, because the
Holocaust is not taught in Palestinian schools, and that there is “a lot
of denial” in his community that it even happened.) Eleven days ago, he
resigned from his post following a lengthy campaign of death threats,
campus riots and intimidation and harassment against him.
Arab citizens of Israel can also be vulnerable if they don’t toe the
line. Three days ago, a 16-year-old Arab Israeli named Mohammad Zoabi
posted a three-minute YouTube video
expressing support for the kidnapped youngsters, as well as condemning
the Palestinian Authority as a “terrorist organization.” While his
mother praised him for having “the courage to speak” that she says she
never had, Israeli police arrested three of his relatives—his father, a
grandmother and an aunt— who were suspected of plotting to take him
across the border to the West Bank to harm him.
“To those terrorists who have kidnapped our kids, bring them back,”
Zoabi said in the video, in English, Arabic and Hebrew—an Israeli flag
positioned behind him. “And you better bring them back now…To
Bibi, our prime minister, and his government, wake up and stop
cooperating with terrorists. The Palestinian Authority is the biggest
terrorist… Our enemies don’t separate between Arabs and Jews living in
Israel. For them, we are all one. For them, we are all Israelis. And you
know what? I am proud about that. I’m an Israeli… Israel is here to
exist, as a Jewish and as a democratic country.” Watch his inspiring
video. But the BDS professors in America who are behind an academic boycott of Israel—they call it a “colonial, apartheid, racist” state—might not want to go near it.
One more example: The talented Arab Israeli journalist Khaled Abu
Toameh, born in the West Bank city of Tulkarem. He has strongly
condemned those who falsely smear Israel as an apartheid country, and
has received threats in return. He says that those who threaten him do
not dispute his reporting but simply want him to gag himself on the
subject.

As for Abbas’s speech in Saudi Arabia, he deserves applause for
it. But he was initially silent after the kidnappings became known. It
was only after a phone conversation with Netanyahu three days later,
their first direct talk in over a year, when Abbas became a mensch and
stepped to the plate. Moreover, the leader of the PA too often talks out
of both sides of his mouth—saying in Arabic to Palestinians and the
Arab media what they want to hear, while saying the politically-correct
things in English to foreign officials and Western media. As Richard
Chesnoff, a former executive editor of Newsweek, and a prize-winning veteran reporter, wrote in 2012: “If there were an Oscar given for doublespeak, the Palestinian political leadership would win it, hands down.”
Just since the 2010 start of the peace talks (and continuing today), a
venomous stream of hate messages gets disseminated by the PA through
its media, social and education systems. It’s a steady drumbeat of
libels, including repeated assertions that Israel intentionally spreads
AIDS, prostitution and drugs among Palestinians, and even pollutes
Palestinian waters. Similar recurring themes can be found in everything
from the sports pages, textbooks and children’s shows and plays, to
music videos, cartoons, puppet shows, even crossword puzzles, game show
quizzes and school exam questions. While campaigning for the nomination
to be the Democratic presidential candidate in 2007, Hillary Clinton
gave a press conference in the U.S. Senate building where she insisted,
“We must stop the propaganda.” She called it a “clear example of child
abuse” that “profoundly poisons the minds of these children.”
I’ve written previously
in Forbes about the literally dozens of summer camps, town squares,
schools, stadiums and sports teams in the West Bank named after
terrorists whose only claim to fame are having tallied up the most
civilian casualties. In 2010, a town in the West Bank honored Saddam
Hussein with a town square memorial. Salah Khalaf, who planned the
murder of two American diplomats, on top of the killing of 11 Israeli
athletes in the 1972 Olympics, has a sports stadium in his name; it was
even built with U.S. funding. The PA maintains the practice of defining
all of Israel as “Palestine” on maps and websites. In 2012, Abbas and
six other senior PA leaders were in the audience at a packed concert
when a singer from his party praised him by name—within a song that
presented all of Israel as Palestinian land.
In 2011, on official PA TV, Abbas himself praised the snatching of
Israeli soldier Shalit, then age 19: “Hamas kidnapped a soldier, or
captured a soldier, and managed to keep him for five years—that’s a good
thing, we don’t deny it.”
.

OVAL OFFICE REDUX: Presidents Obama and
Peres, here in 2009, will meet again this week. “The leaders of the
world must make their voices heard loud and clear,” Peres told the
parents of the abducted kids. “This is my personal mission.” (White
House Photo)

Q: I agree with you that Abbas’s speech [in Saudi
Arabia] was forceful, and he said it in front of Arab ministers, giving
it even more force. But I think he’s often late in saying what needs to
be said after such incidents—and only after he’s pressured to do so by
Israel or other countries.A: I’ll be honest, I don’t know. I’m a technology person, not
a geopolitical analyst. My sense is, and also from what I hear is, that
the Palestinian security apparatus is supporting this [effort to locate
the boys]. The Israelis and Palestinians—we have our issues, our
differences, we have our fights, let’s face it. But even when
you have disagreements and even when there’s conflict, conflict has
laws, conflict has rules. We have 120 years of the Palestinian-Israeli
conflict, give or take. Two and a half years of conflict in Syria
yielded 10x the amount of casualties. It’s a very tragic conflict for
both sides, I’m not trying to downplay it. But there is, I would almost
say, a level of decency sometimes. There are two sides, and each one is
going to have their painful points they want to make. But you don’t
kidnap teens. You don’t take kids who want to come back home from
school. You don’t do it…. It’s unfortunate that the Kerry talks so far
did not succeed, but there is this de facto status quo that includes
cooperation. Good things are happening. And suddenly comes this thing,
and it’s a major disruption. I read the Palestinian press sometimes, I
know some Arabic, and many Palestinians are enraged by the abductions.
Many of them are really angry about this thing. It hurts, it set so many
things backwards.Q: But some of the Palestinian press is supportive of the kidnappings.A: With Hamas in Gaza, there are some voices there that are
supportive. But as opposed to other cases in the past, I think the level
of support, even among the most radical, is very low. People really
think there’s a red line: You don’t touch kids. Try to understand the
subtext of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. You don’t touch kids.
Unfortunately, people die, people get hurt, there are bombs. But there
are things you don’t do. You don’t touch kids. You look at the subtext of Abbas—he speak in Arabic of the shuhada [suicide bombers], the youngsters, that there’s this cultural code, and [Abbas says] you don’t touch kids—leave them out of it.
.
As recently as four months ago, one of Abbas’ senior officials,
Jibral Rajoub, said that “if Hamas wants to kidnap soldiers, let them…We
encourage them.” Two days ago, Rajoub—himself released in a prisoner
swap—stated that “apparently Israel understands only the language of
abductions.” So while Abbas appears to draw a distinction between the
seizure of teenage soldiers and non-soldiers, Rajoub evidently does not.
One thing that is crystal clear: Abbas’ deputy is playing with fire
with such a remark during a week when Israelis all across the country
are anxious and furious. The official Palestinian daily takes the
goading even further, suggesting that Israel may be behind the
kidnappings.
Disturbingly and grotesquely, Hamas affiliates have launched what
they call “The Three Shalits” campaign in social media—a reference to
the name of the Israeli soldier who was held for five years by Hamas.
They are mocking the abductees by likening them to Shalit. Their
Facebook pages features dozens of photos of smiling people, including
kids, holding up the three-fingered symbol. In another case, a cartoon
shows three rats with the Jewish Star of David dangling from a fishing
rod, accompanied by a caption in Arabic that reads: “A Master Stroke.”
Middle East commentator Tom Gross has compiled a collection.
Also on social media, Israeli anger has boiled over. A Facebook page that calls for the murder of a Palestinian terrorist every hour until the three boys are released has more than 20,000 “likes.”

LOGGING IN TO HATE:An odious Hamas
social-media campaign called “Three Shalits” — a twisted play on Gilad
Shalit, the Israeli soldier held captive by the terrorist group for five
years. (Sources: Ynetnews; Israel Defense Forces)

.Q: The boys are believed to have been at a hitchhiking
junction in the West Bank when they went missing. There’s been some
criticism that they may have been hitching, and that perhaps they
shouldn’t have been doing it in a potentially-dangerous area. Is that a
valid criticism?A: I’m not sure that we know the full facts. Were they
actually hitchhiking, or did someone stop and take them? It’s part of
the investigation and until the full details are uncovered, I’m not sure
it would be a wise thing to discuss. It’s one of the open questions of
the investigation. But some people do not understand exactly the
picture, or, as in other cases, they have this inclination to blame the
victim: “Why were they there? What were they doing there?” It
overshadows, you know, that this is a terrible crime. These are three
young teens wanting to come back home from school, abducted. And it
hurts the Palestinian people no less than the Israelis.Q: You’re a religious man, Yishai. How has that been over the past week, in terms of how it plays into your thoughts?A: It’s a hard question. Being a religious man, you have
faith and you have trust and you believe in the power of prayer, and it
helps in these moments. I really believe in the power of prayer to
transcend and to uplift and to really help speed up the resolution. Now,
as a religious man, how do I treat evil? Hey, here’s a very bad thing,
why did it happen to really innocent kids? It’s a question. Not
different from how come a million and a half kids were murdered during
the Holocaust? Once I transformed from child to adult was the day I
understood that some questions do not have answers, or may take a
lifetime to find the answers. How can evil things happen to good people?
I don’t have answers. I know it happened. Does this mean I believe less
in God? No, but these are good questions. I do not have the answers.

MAY HE AND HIS FRIENDS BE STRONG, AND FREE: Naftali Fraenkel, bottom center.

.Richard Behar is the Contributing Editor, Investigations, for Forbes magazine. He can be reached at rbehar@forbes.com

We are hypocrites and cowards - we take freedom for granted as it is eroding underneath our feet‏

Message to offended Muslims

A GOOD, TRUE STORY NOT KNOWN BY MANY.....Air Force.

The IDF’s Minorities in Numbers and Pictures

In honor of IDF Diversity Week, we present diversity through numbers and pictures. Each year, more and more Muslims, Christians, Druze, Bedouin and immigrants from around the world take on the responsibility of defending Israel.

MUSLIMS:

Muslim Arab Israelis are not required to draft in the IDF, but there are many who volunteer. In 2013, there were over 200 Muslims serving in the IDF and over 300 in the reserves.

What happened?

Mark Hasten Tribute Video Touro College

Housing Quiz

The Record-so far...!

CBS special on Bengazi

Report: 83 percent of doctors have considered quitting over Obamacare

Sally Nelson

Eighty-three percent of American physicians have considered leaving their practices over President Barack Obama’s health care reform law, according to a survey released by the Doctor Patient Medical Association.

Islamization on the move

"What we are dealing with is Islamization. Islamization is the imposition of ideological norms in increasing severity. Like Nazification, it transforms a society by remaking it in its own image from the largest to the smallest of details."Daniel Greenfield

Toronto rejects Anti-Israel Ads...

Shrinking Lands

Why Israel opposes international forces in the jordan valley/

/why-israel-opposes-international-forces-in-the-jordan-valley/

Islam is Islam, And That’s It

Back in 2007, when confronted with the phrase “moderate Islam”, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan famously responded: “These descriptions are very ugly, it is offensive and an insult to our religion. There is no moderate or immoderate Islam. Islam is Islam and that’s it.”

Many thanks to Vlad Tepes for uploading and annotating this video: View video at http://gatesofvienna.net/

There's no racist like a liberal racist

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=vz4PjxSmtoI

Ex-Navy SEAL Drops Bombshell On FOX: Says Government is Creating Conditions to Impose Martial Law R

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDuds14OBiE#t=156

American surprise

The Nairobi Mall Massacre

Ninh Chu Ninh Chu

Islam Untied

Platitudes about Islam being a faith of peace are not credible anymore. Islam is only as good as the way its followers practice it; and if they have created killing fields in the name of Islam, then Islam will be recognized by the silence of those who did not speak out when their faith was being massacred to massacre humanity.

AFTERBURNER w/ BILL WHITTLE: The Lynching

What-are you against peace?

Sydney Wake Up The Horrific Muslim Infiltration Of Britain - Luton

Kerry: 'Core Issue of Instability ... Is the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict'‏

Kerry is no friend. By endorsing the "Arab peace initiative" he shows his true intentions and beliefs . And by endorsing linkage he shows that he is either a liar or a fool.Syria is on fire, Egypt is at best incredibly unstable and this is due to Israel? It is out in the open!

A word to left-wing students

In their own words-ru listening?

"The lesson these Islamist groups appear to be drawing from events in Egypt is that democratic engagement with opponents is pointless. And that doesn't bode well for countries with strong Islamist movements..."

Flashback: Obama Admits He Cut Medicare

Another Democratic slogan blown to h....

Are you aware that in 2013, Middle class taxes go up-significantly?

In January of next year, the federal income tax rate for middle-class taxpayers is scheduled to rise from 25 percent to 28 percent, and the payroll tax is scheduled to rise from 13.3 percent to 15.3 percent… This drives the marginal tax rate based on the aforementioned three taxes to 48.12 percent. Add in state and local property, corporate, excise, and other state and local taxes, and the percentage of each additional dollar that is taxed hovers around 50 percent… When half of each additional dollar earned is taxed away, taxpayers experience a disincentive to start businesses or expand existing ones. This leads to fewer jobs being created.

When nations and cultures ignore the early warning signs of the infiltration of radical Islam

The UK has 85 sharia courts. France has over 750 “no go zones,” Muslim enclaves where even French police don’t enter.

Watch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDKk15KcqNk&feature=email

No such thing as "Islamophobia"

However, if you do not want your positions challenged or criticized or even researched, make up a new "phobia"-shout it long enough and some "people", agenda driven, will use it. Ay, yes, the false term does keep many, many financially rewarded-follow the money.gs don morris, Ph.D.

Khader Adnan: Leader of Islamic jihad or innocent baker?

Why is HAMAS Inside Tampa Schools?

Clare Lopez

Kelly Miliziano, who teaches history classes at Steinbrenner High School in the Tampa, Florida area apparently thinks it’s perfectly OK to invite a senior official of a HAMAS-affiliated organization into her classroom to discuss Islam with her students. According to local media reports, not only has this been going on for years, but in spite of the civil and criminal proceedings that could result from such reckless negligence, the Hillsborough County school superintendent, Mary Ellen Elia, and the chairman of the school board, Candy Olson, also expressed approval for students under their responsibility to be exposed repeatedly to guest speaker, Hassan Shibly, who is the Executive Director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) in the Tampa area.More...

Omar Barghouti's Propaganda at USC on January 12, 2012

Did You Know... Ignoring the Call to Islam will Bring Jihad

‘Conquest through Da’wa [proselytizing] that is what we hope for. We will conquer Europe, we will conquer America! Not through sword but through Da’wa.’ -- Yousef al-Qaradawi , Muslim Brotherhood spiritual leader The Arabic word ‘Da’wa’ means the “call to Islam.” But do not think that Da’wa is the same thing as an invitation to an optional holiday event. The classical Islamic doctrine of jihad mandates that enemies must be given the opportunity to convert to Islam or pay the jizya tax before it is permissible to attack them.Clare M. Lopez

Americans are opening their eyes

Advertisers fleeing All-American Muslim 'propaganda'The American people are seeing through the propaganda piece that is TLC's All-American Muslim reality/dawah show, and responsible advertisers are fleeing in droves. The show aims to combat a trumped-up problem, "Islamophobia," by presenting Muslims who are just ordinary folk, and

Why Islam is Incompatible with Western Law

Col. Allen West answers a question on muslim terror

Challah's Gaza Rocket Counter

This Month:4Last Month:191

This Year: 562

Total since 2002: 12055

Cease fire Hamas style!!

Thanks http://challahhuakbar.blogspot.com/

"Islamophobia"

"Islamophobia" was a politically manipulative coinage designed to silence critics of Islamic supremacism.It was invented, deliberately, by a Muslim Brotherhood front organization, the International Institute for Islamic Thought, which is based in Northern Virginia.

10 Unknown West Bank Facts

Liberals Redefine "Extremism" and the "Political Center"

On March 31, 1977, the Dutch newspaper Trouw published an interview

with PLO executive committee member Zahir Muhsein. Here's what he said:

"The Palestinian people does not exist.The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct "Palestinian people" to oppose Zionism.

For tactical reasons, Jordan, which is a sovereign state with defined borders, cannot raise claims to Haifa and Jaffa, while as a Palestinian, I can undoubtedly demand Haifa, Jaffa, Beer-Sheva and Jerusalem. However, the moment we reclaim our right to all of Palestine, we will not wait even a minute to unite Palestine and Jordan."

Don’t ever call it ‘West Bank’ again

In March 1977, Zahir Muhsein, a PLO executive, said:

"The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct Palestinian people to oppose Zionism."

"For tactical reasons, Jordan, which is a sovereign state with defined borders, cannot raise claims to Haifa and Jaffa, while as a Palestinian, I can undoubtedly demand Haifa, Jaffa, Beer-Sheva and Jerusalem. However, the moment we reclaim our right to all of Palestine, we will not wait even a minute to unite Palestine and Jordan."

Who do the territories belong to?

The legal borders of Israel under international law

The Arab Apartheid

Ben-Dror YeminiIn 1948, the Arab countries refused to accept the UN partition proposal and they launched a war of annihilation against the State of Israel which had barely been established. All precedents in this matter showed that the party that starts the war - and with a declaration of annihilation, yet - pays a price for it. Between 550,000 and 710,000 Arabs fled because of the war and a larger number of 850,000 Jews were expelled or fled from Arab countries (the "Jewish nakba").Population exchanges and expulsions were the norm at that time, occurring in dozens of other conflict points and affecting about 52 million people. In all the population exchange precedents that occurred during or at the end of an armed conflict, there was no return of refugees to the previous region, which had turned into a new national state. Only the Arab states acted completely differently from the rest of the world. Instead of assimilating the refugees, they crushed them despite the fact that they were their coreligionists and members of the Arab nation - instituting a regime of apartheid. So the "nakba" was not caused by the actual dispossession, which had also been experienced by tens of millions of others. The "nakba" is the story of the apartheid, oppression, abuse and denial of rights suffered by the Arab refugees at the hands of the Arab countries. (Maariv)

How Liberals Argue

Hebrew Univ-you rock!!

Judea and Samaria are not "occupied" lands-why?

Judea-Samaria were not only parts of the ancient Jewish homeland but were recognized as part of the Jewish National Home recognized by San Remo and the League of Nations [1920, 1922] and by the UN charter [article 80; 1945].

"Political Correctness."

"Political correctness is a doctrine, fostered by a delusional, illogical minority, and rapidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end."Texas A&M

Christopher Monckton Speaking in St. Paul on the climate issues

International Law and Military Operations in Practice - Col. Richard Kemp

"Islamist fighting groups study the international laws of armed conflict carefully and they understand it well. They know that a British or Israeli commander and his men are bound by international law and the rules of engagement that flow from it. They then do their utmost to exploit what they view as one of their enemy's main weaknesses. Their very modus operandi is built on the correct assumption that Western armies will normally abide by the rules, while these insurgents employ a deliberate policy of operating consistently outside international law. "

Lost Historical Moments

WHAT Golda Meir actually said...

"When was there an independent Palestinian people with a Palestinian state? It was either southern Syria before the First World War, and then it was a Palestine including Jordan. It was not as though there was a Palestinian people in Palestine considering itself as a Palestinian people and we came and threw them out and took their country away from them. They did not exist." Golda Meir June 15, 1969: Interview in the UK Sunday Times

What Rabin’s last Knesset speech really said:repudiation of a Palestinian state

Rabin ruled out a fully sovereign Palestinian state :

“We view the permanent solution in the framework of State of Israel which will include most of the area of the Land of Israel as it was under the rule of the British Mandate, and alongside it a Palestinian entity which will be a home to most of the Palestinian residents living in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. We would like this to be an entity which is less than a state, and which will independently run the lives of the Palestinians under its authority.”

Rabin ruled out a total withdrawal from Judea and Samaria and thus a return to the pre-June 1967 borders :

“The borders of the State of Israel, during the permanent solution, will be beyond the lines which existed before the Six Day War. We will not return to the 4 June 1967 lines.”

Rabin ruled out withdrawing form the Jordan Valley:

“The security border of the State of Israel will be located in the Jordan Valley, in the broadest meaning of that term.”

Rabin ruled out uprooting settlement blocs, like the Gush Katif bloc in Gaza (which was subsequently uprooted by former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon):

“The establishment of blocs of settlements in Judea and Samaria, like the one in Gush Katif.

AND

Rabin ruled out removing any settlement before coming to a full peace agreement with the Palestinians:

“I want to remind you: we committed ourselves, that is, we came to an agreement, and committed ourselves before the Knesset, not to uproot a single settlement in the framework of the interim agreement, and not to hinder building for natural growth.”

Rabin insisted on Israel retaining full security control of the borders with Egypt and Jordan, contrary to Israel’s relinquishment of the Philadelphia Corridor on the border with Egypt:

“The responsibility for external security along the borders with Egypt and Jordan, as well as control over the airspace above all of the territories and Gaza Strip maritime zone, remains in our hands.”

Correcting Oslo Myths-Part 2

3) Kuttab laments that the post-1993 Oslo process resulted in a Palestinian Authority "whose ministers and legislators are not guaranteed passage between Gaza and the West Bank ...."

Before free passage or other perquisites, PA leaders were obligated, among other things, to eliminate the terrorist infrastructure in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, end anti-Israeli, antisemitic incitement in schools, mosques, and communications media, and resolve all outstanding issues through peaceful negotiations. They met none of these commitments, sometimes bolstering terrorism and greatly increasing incitement.

4) Kuttab complains that under Oslo the PA got "lightly armed police ---- but no real sovereignty over the land or contiguity between our communities in Gaza and the West Bank."

Oslo agreements repeatedly were revised, regardless of Palestinian non-compliance, until the authorized number of police grew from 8,000 to 40,000. Though they were to be the only armed forces in the territories, Israeli estimates early in the second intifada put the number of gunmen - police, "security services," terrorists, and armed gangs - at 85,000. Their armament reportedly included not only heavy machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades, but also anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles.

Sovereignty was to be negotiated in the envisioned 1998 "final status" talks - after a five-year period of confidence-building. Palestinian leadership chronically undermined the process. Palestinian terrorism made the 1993 - 1998 Oslo period more deadly for Israelis than the 15 years preceding it.

The United States doesn't have contiguity between the lower 48 states and Alaska and Hawaii; territorial contiguity between the West Bank and Gaza Strip - that is, through the 20 miles of Israeli territory between them - was never promised and would destroy Israeli contiguity.

5) "Palestinians have been made to endure hundreds of checkpoints in the West Bank, an eight-foot wall deep in our territories, and tight Israeli control over borders."

The security barrier is not "deep in Palestinian territories," but rather encompasses less than 8 percent of Judea and Samaria, and is mostly a fence, rarely a wall; the land in question is not "our [Palestinian] territories" but disputed territory to which, according to the authors of U.N. Security Council Resolution 242, Jews as well as Arabs have claims; and there are no international borders, only the 1949 armistice lines with Jordan. Under 242, borders remain to be negotiated. As for checkpoints - like the security barrier and "tight Israeli control" - Palestinian Arabs precipitated these measures themselves. No terrorism and there would be no fence or tight Israeli control and few checkpoints - like before the first intifada.

Correcting Some Oslo Myths

1) In Oslo "Israeli, Palestinian and other world leaders promised that ... Palestinian sovereignty would be solidified."

No, they didn't. The 1993 Declaration of Principles and subsequent Oslo agreements outlined a process by which final status negotiations about the West Bank and Gaza Strip would be reached. The process required an end to anti-Israel terrorism and incitement and a commitment to peaceful negotiations. The PA, Fatah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and other terrorist groups, sabotaged the process from the start.

2) "The reality is that, in defiance of U.N. Security Council Resolution 242, which states that it is inadmissible to occupy land by force, Palestinian territories are still under foreign military occupation."Wrong again. Resolution 242 (1967) does note "the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war." It also affirms the right of every state in the area "to live in peace with secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force." There were no "Palestinian territories." Jordan occupied the West Bank, Egypt controlled Gaza. Israel did not have "secure and recognized boundaries," so retention of some of those territories was possible under 242. Israel is not a "foreign" military occupier in the West Bank but, pending final negotiations, the lawful military administrator as a result of a successful war of self-defense.

About Me

Semi-retired Professor, now also permanent resident of Israel;divides time between both countries-serves on several Boards of Directors for Israel advocacy groups;Chana, resident of Jerusalem, JCPA member